Medea

History

The Earth Federation used the Medea to transport supplies during the One Year War. When the Federation started rolling out mass-produced mobile suits, the transport plane was converted to a mobile suit carrier with a capacity for up to three suits.

The Federation produced a variant of the Medea, the C-88 Medea, in UC 0083. The original Medea remained in service in the Federation forces up to UC 0087. It was mainly used to transport supplies. The larger Garuda-class transport plane was preferred for mobile suit transportation.

Medea piloted by Matilda Ajan

Design

The Medea was initially designed as a cargo aircraft. It was faster and had a greater operating range compared to the Gunperry. It had five vertical take-off and landing rotors that allowed it to land and take-off without a runway. The transport plane had four large jet engines on the top and two smaller ones on the wings.

Medea cockpit

Medea cockpit from The 08th MS Team

When the Earth Federation started deploying mass-produced mobile suits in the battlefields, the Medea was converted to carry mobile suits. Its cargo hold was able to carry up to three suits. It could transport new mobile suits between Federation bases or drop manned mobile suits into conflict zones. The plane had a maximum cargo capacity of 160 metric tons.

Armaments

The Medea was armed with a pair of twin anti-air machine guns. These were used to defend itself against lightly-armoured aircraft. The machine guns were unable to penetrate the thick armour of mobile suits, and were only used as a last resort as the transport ship was usually under an armed escort.